After that first visit to the dentist, we can now confirm that Emma has a total of 18 teeth, with 2 top molars to come.

Motor Skills

Emma is mastering the art of climbing up and down the stairs, on her own. When she goes upstairs, she will scale up the stairs on all fours, and when she comes down, she holds on to the balustrade.

She does not like to sit in the stroller when we go out now, preferring instead to walk on her own.

She has started to really enjoy her bath time now, and sometimes we have to negotiate with her to end her bath.

Communication and Social Skills

Emma can sing along to some songs which are played often, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, some Barney songs, and she loves singing with her siblings. She catches the words pretty quickly when she hears the songs on the TV.

Emma can count 1-10 by rote, sometimes she will also say 11 or 12…

… and some parts of the ABCs too.

She can recognise a few colors and can point to items of that color when asked. Still working on it, but she usually gets PINK and GREEN correct.

She can address “Ah Kong” and “Ah Ma”.

Food and Feeding

Emma will eat mostly what the whole family eats now, and she is starting to love chicken too. She also loves her rice and “char hor fun”. She will say that she wants to “eat tar pow rice”.

We brought Emma for her first visit to the dentist recently. In the past, my kids began seeing the dentist at least once a year when they turn 2. So it was the same for little Emma. We make it a family affair where everyone gets their teeth checked. It’s a good practice and it’s something I would recommend for all families.

Here she is browsing the reading material in the waiting area…

I had told her about it so she would be prepared, and she watched as Hannah and Ethan took their turns sitting in the chair.

When it was Emma’s turn, she was very confident and ready to go. The chair was HUGE compared to her, and the dentist gently coaxed her to open her mouth so he could look at her teeth.

I was actually surprised when the dentist told us that all her incisors and canines were there! I had thought Emma was missing an incisor all this while! She now has 18 teeth with 2 more molars to come soon.

Last Sunday morning, Hannah had her Sports Day event in school. I was especially glad (as was she) that she could make it, because my little girl had been ill the whole of the previous week and had missed 5 whole days of school. She had been down with a very high fever (caused by bacterial infection) which had gone up and down, with a high of 40.2°C, and had rendered her weak and also made her lose her appetite.

Anyway, that’s all in the past and I am very proud of my little fighter as she battled her illness with a steel front.

Hannah is in K2, and as is tradition, the K2 kids would set up food stalls for a bake sale with proceeds going to their class fund. Hannah made the poster for her stall at home, because she was still recuperating at home when her friends made theirs in school. On the day before Sports Day, I made some wholesome and healthy chocolate beetroot and pumpkin muffins to pack for sale.

Hannah with her friend running the food stall…

It was an overcast Sports Day, so it wasn’t too hot, to the relief of “people who fear the heat” like me. The event started with the march past… just look how happy Hannah is!

…followed by a warm-up exercise session

Hannah was aiming to get her first gold medal from Sports Day…

…and she successfully did!!!

Hannah continued her entrepreneurial stint selling her muffins, but I think at the end of the day the highlight was winning that coveted gold medal.